Referring to fishermen in the West
coast halibut fishery prior to catch shares at the Milken Institute's
conference in early 2010, he said "…that's not a full time
job. All you have is essentially itinerant labor, that bounces around
from job to job, it's unskilled, it's unprofessional, it's low-paid,
there's high drug use, it's a rough life. It's romantic, um, you get
great bar scenes in, um, you know the Perfect Storm, and George Clooney
looks really sexy but, it's uh, well, speaking, well, anyway, my wife
says that. But the problem is it's not a full time stable job.” Then,
in talking about the same fishery after catch shares were instituted,
“now you got a job, now you have professional fishermen, who many of
them start to get degrees, go to college, advanced degrees in fishery
biology and business (Mr. Festa has an advanced degree from Harvard),
that begin to work on different various business plans…. they make good
jobs they are full time, they live in the community they become, they
stabilize the community." (link)

At the Milken conference above,
Mr. Festa advised attendees that investments in catch shares
could realize up to a 400% return.

Environmental Defense Vice President for the West Coast
and apparently lead EDF salesman for Jane Lubchenco's catch
shares program (link).

Member of President Obama's Department of Commerce transition
team.

Mr. Festa has taught with
Jane Lubchenco (link) and
AndrewRosenberg (link)
at Oregon State University.